Obama Faces Entrenched Resistance Among Some White Voters

Two more new national polls released Thursday point toward a presidential election that could divide the nation along racial lines at least as sharply as the 2008 campaign.

In 2008, Barack Obama became the first candidate ever to lose whites by double digits and win the White House (John McCain beat him among whites by 55 percent to 43 percent), on the strength of support from a cumulative 80 percent from all minority voters.

The first University of Phoenix/National Journal Next America Poll and the latest Quinnipiac University national survey, both released Thursday, closely track the picture of those earlier surveys. Obama leads 50 percent to 42 percent in the Next America Poll (which was conducted from April 5-11, before other surveys that have shown a closer race) and 46 percent to 42 percent in the Quinnipiac survey. But when the white electorate is viewed through the lens of gender and education, each poll shows him facing strong headwinds among all but one group.